The Wife He Left Behind novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Four Floors Up

The answer was in our shared shopping account.

I had looked at my own orders there for years, and never once at his.

Tobias had added me to it in our first year of marriage, so I could use the free shipping.

It had never occurred to him that I might open it.

I sat at my kitchen table on Thursday night with the laptop.

Stellan sat across from me with his coat still on.

I scrolled back through seven months of orders.

There were work shirts, a coffee grinder, and a set of white towels.

Then, in August, a baby monitor.

In September, a crib in pale wood, a mattress for it, and a mobile of paper birds.

All of them shipped to the same place.

1180 Westlake Avenue, Unit 4C, Seattle.

"That's fifteen minutes from here," I said.

My voice sounded completely ordinary, and I didn't trust it.

Stellan leaned over and looked at the screen.

He didn't touch the laptop.

"He used your account."

"He used the account I use to buy dish soap. He didn't think I'd look." I clicked on the most recent order. "Delivered Monday. Assembly required."

"He's building a crib."

"He's a man who has never assembled anything in his life. He called a handyman to hang a picture."

Neither of us laughed.

We had been in the kitchen for an hour, and neither of us had suggested calling anyone.

Not the police, because there was nothing to report.

Not Tobias, because he would only lie.

Not Camille, because her brother was sitting at my table with his jaw clenched hard enough to hurt.

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